Stop reading books please 😱 😖

I’m gonna need you to stop reading books now.

WAIT — hear me out.

Reading is one of the best things in the entire multiverse.

You should read. Widely and deeply and like a writer.

Read books about how to write, by all means.

I’ve written several of them myself. I love Steven Pressfield’s War of Art, it’s great; as is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and Stephen King’s On Writing and any other of the great and famous books written by writers on how to write.

Then STOP READING.

JUST STOP.

Because if you’re still not writing your book despite having read The War of Art 7,493 times, there’s a bigger problem.

Right? RIGHT?

“Umm, are you inside my head right now? 😆 Gah. No matter how many times I read Steven Pressfield’s War of Art, I’m still here, not writing my book “because of all the other things” 🙈 RESISTANCE!”

👆🏼

This was a comment on one of my Instagram reels and boy do I have some things to say about it so buckle up.

At some point, you have to acknowledge that reading yet another book on how to write a book ain’t gonna get the job done.

You’re procrastinating.

Making excuses.

Flaking out.

You do not need to know everything about the craft (that’s not possible); what you need to do now is just fucking WRITE.

Which, I know, can be excruciatingly difficult because — hey — I’m a writer too.

I’ve been there. Am still there. Often.

Because how do you even get started?

What if your idea isn’t good enough for a book?

Do you even know what you want the book to do, for you and for your reader?

All these questions churn around in your head, and so it’s seductive, isn’t it, to reach for yet another “how to” because that feels like useful progress.

But it isn’t.

Trust me when I say it isn’t, because I’ve been there over and over again.

Put down the writing manuals and how-tos — they’re no longer serving you.

Instead, hire someone to help you actually get this done.

The only way to write your book is to write your book, and I know that sounds ridiculously obvious and you might be thinking “fuck you Vicky, it’s easy for you, you’re a writer.”

Well, I assure you it isn’t easy for me.

Just ask my husband about the depths of woe I descended into two weeks before my 15,000 word Masters thesis was due in, and I had 3,000 words on paper and about 10 million in my head.

Here’s what I have learned to do over the years, though:

1. Harness the panic that an imminent deadline brings.
2. Ask for help when I need it. There’s zero shame there.
3. Create the conditions that mean I can write what I want and need to write. Sometimes even when I want to do it.

All this is by way of saying: I know it’s not as simple as “just fucking WRITE” but also it is that simple.

It really is.

So let me ask you: you want to write, right?

What are you going to do about that?

And if you’re serious about it, I’d like to invite you to take one of my 3 August slots for Book Coach In Your Pocket.

If you do the work we plan together, and take full advantage of my mentoring + coaching service, you could have your first draft done in 30 days.

Imagine that: going from UGH THIS IS KILLING ME WHY CAN’T I JUST WRITE to OH MY GOD I’VE WRITTEN MY FIRST DRAFT.

The weight that will lift, my friend, will feel like literal magic.

You got this.

I got you.

Let’s go:

If you want to write, let’s write

How to work with The MicroBook Magician

​Nonfiction Book Ghostwriting: Idea to book in just 20 weeks

​Buy My Book: How the hell do you write a book?

​VIP Book Breakthrough Day: Make a quantum leap in book progress in just one day

​Book Coach In Your Pocket: Your first draft done (or all but) in just 30 days

​MicroBook Magic: Write your MicroBook in just 6 weeks

​Creative Playground: Write every day + get advice, support, and bonus access to my workshops! (1 week trial for £1)

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p.s. My Book Coach In Your Pocket service is, in the words of one of my July clients, “incredible” — so let’s do this!